The Unavoidable
by Tiamath
Summary: OFFICIALLY ON HIATUS Two kids against a hundred Yeerks to save the school and consequently the world? In less than an hour? This was going to be a big job. I was so terrified I could barely squeak.
1. Chapter 1

**_Please Note_**: Any resemblance to reality is purely accidental and unintentional. Any resemblance to previous storylines is also unintentional but unavoidable, given the number of Animorph books and fanfics out there. (I can't read them all!) The Animorphs, and all references to them, belong to K. A. Applegate, and the storyline belongs to fanfiction writers everywhere. The words that come from my head belong to me.

**Chapter 1**

Hi.

I'm Marco. Also known as magnificent, cute, charismatic, and funny.

Well, at least I'm sometimes known as cute and funny. And if I wanted to I could be a seven-foot tall bronzed athlete with rippling muscles and babes to spare, even though right now I'm slightly short for my age. But if I became that seven-foot dream, then I wouldn't be me. Literally.

By now you probably know the routine. I can't tell you who I really am, where I'm from, or what I've done… at least, what I've done in the past. But for those who don't know, and for those who've forgotten, let me clue you in.

Earth is being invaded by a race of slugs called Yeerks. They don't want our land and they certainly don't want our backward technology. They want us. Or rather, our bodies.

You see, the Yeerks are a parasitic species. In their natural state they are nothing better than garden slugs, gray-green blobs that can slowly crawl from place to place. But centuries of evolution gave this slug a weird twist; when a yeerk comes into contact with another species' ear it crawls up it, oozes through the skin of the ear drum, and spreads itself out over the brain.

It sounds pretty creepy, doesn't it? The next part is even worse; after the yeerk has access to the brain, it plugs itself in to the brain's electrons. And then the horror begins. Any species, any_body_ who winds up with a yeerk in their head looses all control of their body. The hosts, or as my friends and I call them, controllers, can still see, smell, taste and think, but he/she/it cannot speak, move, or even twitch an eyebrow.

You probably already know a controller. Yeerks excel in mimicry. You could live for years with a controller and never know it. I know. My best friend, Jake, has a controller for a brother. My own mother was host to the highest-ranking Yeerk in the galaxy.

There is no stopping them. Earth has no defenses. No one to prevent this horrible thing from happening. Except us.

Who exactly is 'us'? Well, there is Rachel, the completely-insane-totally-amazing amazon warrior. Cassie, a gentle but exceptionally brave animal-loving tree-hugger. Jake, my best friend and the unofficial leader of our group. Tobias, the Bird-Boy, with the body of a red-tailed hawk and the mind of a human. The oddest member of our band, the Andilite warrior-cadetAximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. And of course there is me, Marco, the wisecracking, cute, cautious one. And did I mention modest?

We fight with the only power we have; the power given to us by the dying Andilite prince Elfangor. The power to morph.

So now you know why I said that I could literally become someone else. I can. Morphing is a very simple process; you just touch a creature, absorb its DNA, and then concentrate on the critter. And you become something your not.

Of course, I would never really morph someone just to attract girls. We Animorphs have a code of honor that we follow; number one, we cannot morph a sentient creature without its permission and number two, we cannot use our morphing power for personal missions. Or at least, we can't get caught at using our morphing powers for personal missions.

And I didn't plan on getting caught.

_Oh, Marco, will you ever learn? Probably not! Stay tuned…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** see Chapter 1

_"indicates thought speak."_ I'd like to use the regular symbols but Fanfic has deleted them every time I tried to upload. Arrgh! If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd appreciate knowing.

**Chapter 2**

_"You do realize, Marco, that if Jake ever finds out about this, you're dead."_ Tobias muttered as he crawled through the dank, dark, constricting pipe just ahead of me. We were in rat morph, ideal for maneuvering through the huge building unseen.

_"Tobias, if Jake ever finds out about this we're both dead, not just me. But no one is going to know that the rat that attacked Debbie Wallace is a loveable guy named Marco. That is, unless somebody tells them. Remember, I didn't ask you to come along."_ I shot a glare at him as we came to an intersection in the pipes.

_"Yeah, but if Jake caught you he'd know that you didn't locate a sewer rat on your own. I came along to protect my own hide, not yours. Besides,"_ and Tobias's voice held a note of laughter, _"I don't want to miss Ax's second day of school. It was bad enough to have to miss his first. Speaking of which…"_

"…so if you carried the determining factor of zero and divide by the factor of negative one you can determine the relative speed of an object through normal space. Spai-yus. Now if you take the resulting figure and place it in this equation…" Ax, of course. Ax is relatively normal when he's not in morph- at least as normal as a blue-furred, scorpion-tailed alien centaur with stalk eyes can be. But when he's in human morph, his mouth fascinates both him and anyone else within earshot.

Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil, or Ax, is one of the more aggravating problems of the Animorphs. The Yeerks have the idea that we Animorphs are a group of 'Andilite bandits,' and that's good in some ways, because if the Yeerks ever found out that we are mostly a bunch of human kids…well, lets just say we really don't want that to happen. But since there is one true Andilite among us, Ax is in constant danger of Yeerk discovery.

Andilites have many things in common with humans, such as their intelligence, their government, and their values. But they are definitely not from around the neighborhood. Their technology alone has had a 300 year head start. You can probably tell from the way that Ax was entertaining Jake's physics teacher.

_"I'll stay here, Marco. That way I will be able to say to Jake that I wasn't with you."_

_"What, the Bird boy who hunts for breakfast is afraid to get in the ill graces of his esteemed leader?"_

Tobias laughed. _"You better believe it! Plus, I have this problem with smelly gym socks. You will not believe how bad they smell when you have a nose more sensitive than your own."_

* * *

_Marco, Marco, Marco. (shakes head in dismay) What are you up to now, I wonder? Don't worry, there is a plot coming...slowly..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: see Chapter 1

_Err, this is the shortest chapter in the story. They start getting longer from here on in, I promise. Oh, and if you object to sweet revenge, you shouldn't read this chapter..._

**Chapter 3**

I'll say one thing for Tobias- for a hawk that has only recently regained his ability to morph, he sure knows gym socks. By the time I was inside the wall of the girls change room I was seriously considering aborting the mission. Powder, dust, grasses, garbage, rancid sweat and deodorant bombarded my sensitive rat nostrils. The rat was in heaven. I felt like I was in a pet show with way to many pets and far too few pooper-scoopers. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but you get the picture.

I pressed forward. Debbie had taken something very valuable from me, and I wasn't going to let her get away with it.

I found her locker easily. Debbie was about the only person in the entire school who could afford to wear colleen that reeked like 'eau de goat'. The corner of the locker was just as I had found it last Friday, slightly bent. I slipped in and settled down to wait.

It wasn't long before the cheerleading queen came in, her followers trailing behind. Majestically she paused in the doorway, surveying her kingdom, then turned and swept up to her locker, gracefully kneeling on the floor in front so she could reach her lock with ease. The locker door swung open…and revealed me, in all my gringy glory, smiling up at her and waving.

Suddenly, the light dimmed. A sour smell drifted towards me…

_Whump!_ A pile of whiteness fell on top of me.

Her shriek almost deafened me, but I swear I heard a small sonic boom following her out of the room.

* * *

_Bear with me, folks. Next chapter will be uploaded within the hour..._


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** see Chapter 1

**Chapter 4**

3:30 p.m. We were all in Cassie's barn, waiting for Tobias to arrive. Jake had called a meeting because of two very disturbing pieces of intelligence. One he said he wouldn't reveal until Tobias arrived. But he didn't have any reservations about telling us exactly what he thought of the other piece…

"Look, Jake, how was I supposed to know that Debbie would take off her shirt before opening her locker?" I asked, trying not to look smug and failing miserably. I couldn't help it. The entire episode had turned out better than I had dared to hope. Debbie Wallace, the stealer-of-confidence, the mocker-of-the-modest, and the crusher-of-pride had been so terrified of lil'old me in rat morph that she had run straight out of the change room, through the gym, across the hall, and into the bathroom. Only then, as she stared at herself in the mirror, did she realize her mistake. It was the perfect revenge.

Except for the fact that Jake found out. I could have lived without that.

Rachel looked up from her math book and rolled her eyes. " Marco, you were in the girls change room. As in changing clothes? Or do you do something else when you go into the boys change room?" Her eyes narrowed speculatively. "Of course, considering it's _you_ we're talking about…"

I couldn't think of a properly scathing response, so I ignored her. " It's not like it looks suspicious. I had to think long and hard to find the proper animal- one that was small and gross enough to do the job, and yet still something that you would expect to find around the school."

Jake just looked at me with that General look he gets sometimes, when he's really ticked off at someone. Needless to say, I have a great deal of personal experience with it, even though he's my best friend. Perhaps _because_ he's my best friend. I started to squirm and looked past several cages filled with animals to the open barn door, just in time to see Tobias come swooping in, narrowly avoiding the rafters. He zoomed past Cassie, did a neat one eighty, and touched down lightly—squarely on Rachel's math text.

_"Hello, all. Just wandered into town and thought I'd drop by."_ He sounded abominably cheerful, I thought grumpily, but soon was pacified by a private thought-speak message in considerably more worried tones.

_"Does he know?"_ Tobias asked, staring at me and jerking his head at Jake. I glanced around to see if anyone but Jake was looking, and then gave a casual yawn and allowed my head to nod slightly. Y'see, thought-speak is the method we use to talk when we're in morph and have a beak or a proboscis instead of normal mouthparts. It's the natural way that Andilites speak, and it's easy enough in morph, but when we're in our normal forms it is impossible to use.

Jake glared at us, knowing full well what was going on. "Look, Marco, we were lucky this time. But you _know_ that every controller in the city is on the alert for unusual animal behaviour. You're the one I can usually trust to remember all the possible security risks!.." He ran a hand through his hair and broke off, a puzzled look on his face. "What's that sound?"

We all tensed.

What sound?

* * *

_Ah, yes, my first cliffhanger. (sniff) Such a sentimental moment...Next chapter will be up soon!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1

**Chapter 5**

_We all tensed._

_What sound?_

After a few frustrating minutes went by, during which time every animal noise imaginable assaulted our hyper-sensitive ears, Rachel rolled her eyes in exasperation. Cassie gave a wry grimace.

"Well, Jake, this is a barn. You'll have to be a teensy bit more specific if you want us to identify that sound for you."

"I can't hear it now. Just for a second, though, I could have sworn I heard a static sound. You know, like someone opening a bag of chips…or a radio." We all looked at each other as the implications of the mysterious sound sunk in. There were only two possible reasons why someone would be operating a radio near Cassie's barn. The first was that her father had come home early. The second was distinctly less pleasant—and unfortunately, the more likely to occur.

"Ax? Get into an earth-morph, pronto- human or something very small. Tobias? Sorry, buddy, but you need to get into a cage. A loose red-tail will generate too many awkward questions. Cassie, squirrel morph. We need to know what is happening outside." Tobias was in the air even before Jake finished rapping out his orders, heading for the row of cages Cassie and her father kept against the stall walls. Cassie immediately sprouted gray fur. Jake looked around in concern. "Ax?"

"Where is he?"

Tobias, flaring for a landing on top of the cage, suddenly doubled over with laughter and plowed into the hay bale in front of it.

"_C-come see,"_ he burbled, shaking with silent laughter as he winged his way over to one of the stalls. A hawk convulsed with laughter is a very odd sight, indeed. Rachel reached Tobias and began to smile. Cassie, in spite of the fact she had been halfway into becoming one of Tobias's favorite snack foods, was just a fraction of a second behind Rachel, and giggled all the way through the transition from thought-speak to her normal voice. _"I think we've found t_he source of your 'noise,' Jake..."

Ax sat in happy oblivion, completely unaware of the ring of faces staring at him in amused horror. You see, he been in such a hurry that he had actually stopped part-way into human morph. His body was mostly human, although his hands still had too many fingers on them and withered eyestalks sprouted from rumpled hair. His tail was nowhere in evidence and he appeared to be bipedal. But this partial morph wasn't the cause of our hilarity. Oh, no.

Ax was still covered in the natural blue fur of the Andilite race, made more luxurious by some unknown factor as he transformed from, well, Andilite, to mammal. And his head was buried in the same bag of chocolate chip cookies that had caused his crazed haste in the first place. Crumbs flew everywhere as the rapturous aristh attempted to fit four of the deluxe cookies into his mouth at once. Every so often he would give a snuffling kind of snort as he attempted to breath through the chocolaty mess. Simultaneously all our eyes met, merry with suppressed mirth. All was still for a moment save for the sound of happy mumblings and masticated cookie.

"Well, I hate to be the one to say this, but...COOOKIE!" I roared and burst out laughing. "We should make him audition for Sesame Street, we really should. Can you imagine the money they'd save, having a real, live cookie monster? Can you imagine the money they'd _pay_?"

"Which you, of course, would use to go visit King Friday."

"Of course," I grinned at Rachel and mentally kicked myself. Sure, I'd been scared and babbling at the time, but I still should've had the sense to keep that dream to myself. It was just too valuable as blackmail material. "And Mr. Dress-up and Ernie and Bert and Big Bird; wait, I could _be_ Big Bird..."

"You go for it, bird-brain."

"_A-hey, watch it with the bird jokes there. I resemble some of them!" _

Jake was desperately snorting into his hand, trying to keep a straight face. Cassie wasn't even trying and had fallen back on a hay bale, holding her stomach and wiping tears from her eyes. She turned away for a moment to compose herself and stiffened, squinting into the gloom on the far side of the barn. Rachel noticed first.

"Cassie? Hey, earth to Cassie, what's wrong?" Cassie didn't respond. Instead she paced forward, a puzzled look on her face as she examined the equipment sitting in the dark, murmuring "I was sure I'd left that over there..."

After a moment, her expression cleared and she laughed. "Nice try, Eric. Come on out."

* * *

_See? They are getting longer. Unfortunately this means it takes longer to write them, too...I have a feeling that I'm straying away from canon. I'll try to get back to it..._


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1

_Thank-you all reviewers! And whoever else is reading this story! Hope this chapter, though short, is worth the wait!_

**Chapter 6**

The air shimmered for a moment and we caught a glimpse of the metal and plastic body underneath before the next hologram snapped into place, revealing the boy we all had come to know. He smiled sheepishly.

"How'd you know it was me?"

Cassie rolled her eyes expressively. "My dad never keeps the lawnmower that clean, Eric. Not to mention I'd put my lab coat was over there on the hay bale, and it somehow managed to hang itself neatly on the coat rack. And the mouse tracks in the corner had vanished, and that black smudge, right there," pointing, "was missing." She shrugged. "Little things. I probably wouldn't have noticed had we been anyplace else."

Eric looked relieved. "That's good to know. We've been working to improve our holographic range, but there are still a few bugs to work out. For the longest time the projectors kept going on the fritz if we tried to extend past 20 meters with anything more complicated than a brick wall. Once I was trying to imitate a large tree and it ended up with a plaid trunk."

I think that I should interject a note here on the Chee. The chee are holograpic masters, androids originally created by a pacifist species as toys, and as friends. The species was eventually destroyed, and the gentle Chee, not programmed to fight, fled with the remnant population of their masters to Earth. But just because the Chee are pacifist doesn't mean that they will stand by and let another world be destroyed. And with their advanced holo-technology, they are this world's greatest spies.

Except for the Animorphs, of course.

"So? where's Ax?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and shrugged, somehow managing to convey _Don't ask _and _Look for yourself_ in one graceful movement. Jake gave a wry grimace. "I think we can start without him, Eric. He's rather...indisposed, at the moment."

Eric eyed the stall door, which at that moment chose to emit a particularly loud _snuffle_-_grunt_ of pleasure. Jake winced. "_Very_ indisposed."

Apparently, it takes more than a half-morphed, cookie-crazed Andilite choking on a paper Mr. Christie's bag to phase an android older than the earth itself, because Eric just shook his head. "You guys get weirder by the day."

"What? Don't tell me you think having an Andilite turned Cookie Monster in your barn is strange?"

The hologram smiled. "Actually, Marco, I was referring to your new hairstyle. But feel free to interpret the statement in any way you want." Switching his attention to the entire group, he began. "It was so subtle that at first none of our agents caught it. But something big is definitely in the works. The Yeerks have been discretely calling in reinforcements from the outside."

"And by reinforcements you mean…?"

Eric looked straight at me. "Humans. They are bringing back as many Human-Controllers to Earth as they possibly can."

I felt my heart shudder to a stop.

Humans? As in, the members of the species _Homo sapiens _that the Yeerks had 'killed off' to make them available for reassignment off-planet?

As in, my mother?

* * *

_Ugh. This chapter went through some serious growing pains. And some seriously unexpected twists. It wasn't my idea to have Marco's mother come back to Earth. Really, it wasn't...I think my muse is playing tricks on me...  
__Because I couldn't resistthe cliffhanger, I'll work extra fast to get the next one out..._


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1

**Reviewer Responses**—(**Shane C./Sancho**: Hope this chapter's a more respectable length. Goodness knows it took long enough to write! Thanks for all of your reviews and suggestions!) (**traycon3**: Thanks!) (**SouthernBelle**: Sorry it took so long to update, I had massive writer's block…thank you for your review!) (**Lilmaniac**: Thanks for your help with the thought-speak thing and the review!) (**Aeika/mweph**: Ahh! So confusing! Everyone is changing their pen names, I can't keep up…anyway, thanks for the review : )…and don't worry, I'll leave Harry Potter to you…) (**Brisk33**: Thanks so much! I do love them. But in truth I haven't read the books in years—I gave my collection to my school when I graduated, and the collection in the public library is, shall we say, less than adequate…so I am really relying on reviews to keep me on target…)

_Sorry! Sorry! I have many excuses, none of them good, as to why this chapter took so long...hopefully the extended length will appease the irritated..._

**

* * *

Chapter 7**

You know, the worst thing about finding out your mother is a controller is not that the woman who raised you is now a slave in her own mind. It isn't that you doubt whether or not you can free her; nor that you have to witness the woman who used to be your most trusted confident calmly ordering her underlings to kill your friends. It isn't even that you have to face the fact that one day you might very well have to kill your mother.

No, the absolute worst thing about finding out your mother has been infested by Visser One is not knowing when the infestation happened. Who was it that tucked you in at night? Who nursed you through the scrapes and fevers of childhood, who comforted you when you woke up, screaming, because the big purple dinosaurs had suddenly multiplied and were threatening to drown you in honey and sow bugs?

…What?

Suddenly every childhood memory…every cherished moment...becomes tainted. The very foundations of who you are, the person that child became, begin to shatter as you question those memories. Was it your mother, acting out of love? Or was it the yeerk in her head, just acting? Was the person who shaped you into what you are today really just a psychotic, ruthless Yeerk?

Would I be the person I am today if my mother had never been infested?

"Marco."

It's not a question I particularly like to think about.

"Marco?"

Problem is, I find myself thinking about it whether I want to or not…

"Marco!" I jumped and clapped my hand over my abused auditory sensors.

"What was that for?" I glared at Rachel. For just an instant, I thought I caught a flash of dark emotion within those brilliant eyes of hers—but I must have been mistaken. Rachel doesn't do pity.

At least, I hope not.

Then the moment was gone, and the Rachel I knew was back; cocky, confident, and utterly irritating. She lounged back against the hay bale and smiled innocently.

"Oh, sorry Marco. I forgot that yelling that close to your head would create an echo."

I growled something unrepeatable and tuned back into the conversation.

"_Why would they bother bringing back all those controllers? Why not just assimilate more members of the Sharing?"_

"We don't know why, but it must be something big. Bringing back the human-controllers is a big risk for the yeerks. It could draw a lot of unwanted attention if any of the host bodies are recognized. So either the yeerks are confident that they can deal with any security leaks, or…"

Jake made the leap. "…or they no longer care about maintaining their cover." He paused for a moment, then paled. "But that would mean…"

Eric nodded solemnly. "Yeah. That's why the Chee are worried. We don't have anyone in a high enough position to find out exactly what is going on, either. So if anyone is going to find out anything, it'll have to be you guys." He stood up and began to pace around the barn, then turned and looked back at Jake. "Jake, do you know what Tom is doing this weekend?"

"He—it—hasn't told me anything. I think the yeerk has finally realized that there is no way, short of kidnapping, to get me to join the Sharing and has given up…for now, at least."

Eric pulled out a crumpled poster from his 'backpack' and tossed it on the ground. "Read this."

I squinted at the paper from my seat on the hay bale, trying to read the violently coloured bulletin, and felt my stomach start to sink.

**The Sharing is going to be having a 'nature vacation!'  
****Two and a half days of clean, wholesome fun for the entire family.  
****Come help clean up Rielys State Park with us!  
****Camping, scheduled activities, food provided. Enroll today!**

"A meeting for all the sub-Vissers above the rank of nineteen will be called sometime during this event, we know that much. And it is speculated that Visser Three is expecting a superior to show up for the next meeting of the sharing—"

A low, thought-speak moan interrupted Eric, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of someone retching. We all glanced towards Ax's stall, and Cassie stood up hurriedly.

"I'd better go check on him." She hurried off, muttering "I hope he had the sense to wait until his digestive system was fully formed…"

"_Speculated?"_ Tobias prompted.

Eric snapped his attention away from the stall, which was now producing a series of disturbing (and vaguely rude) sounds, along with the soft sound of Cassie's coaxing voice. "Come on Ax, just keep morphing, it'll pass…"

"Yes, speculated…" and here Eric grinned, "…because the entire system has been staying as far away from him as possible. Whatever the reason is, Visser Three is seriously ticked off. And that usually means that he is about to loose some measure of control…or about to see someone who he hates."

_Visser One_. It had to be her. "So, we need to infiltrate that meeting and find out what's really going on." The sinking feeling in my stomach accelerated.

Rachel snorted. "Brilliant deduction, genius."

"What are we going in as?"

"Fly, I guess. We're going to need their maneuverability to get as close as possible to the meeting." Jake shuddered and turned towards Cassie, who had just emerged from the stall, a quivering, pale-blue Andilite in tow. "But believe me, I'm open to suggestions." Jake was nearly squashed as a fly. He's been understandably worried about the morph ever since.

Cassie frowned slightly and looked over at Eric. "Is the meeting going to be held outside?"

"As far as I know, there aren't any buildings in the area. I can't be sure without actually asking the Visser himself." Eric shrugged helplessly. "You know how the yeerks are..."

"Then…I hesitate to suggest another insect, but what about a damselfly? They're almost as maneuverable as flies."

"A what?"

I had a sudden vision of six dragonflies wearing World War I fighter pilot caps and had to laugh. "Cassie, no offense, but a squadron of dragonflies isn't exactly inconspicuous."

She shook her head impatiently. "Not dragonflies, damselflies. They're much smaller, make less noise, are often seen in large groups, and they supposedly have senses that you wouldn't believe. Plus, they're absolutely gorgeous, which makes them less likely to be swatted by the average human...although I doubt a Yeerk would bother to make the distinction."

"It's still a bug."

Jake brought his hands together with a resounding clap. "Whatever it is, it'll be better than a fly. How soon can we acquire one?"

A mischievous smile lit Cassie's face. "That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"How good are you with a net?"

"Huh?"

* * *

I have fought Hork-Bajir twice my size.

I have taken down a Bug-Fighter with my bare hands.

Heck, I've even helped Jake baby-sit Rachel's little terrors—er, sisters.

But I have never, ever before performed a task as difficult as the one I was now attempting.

"Easy, easy," I breathed, hardly daring to move. Slowly I lifted the white net above my head…

"Damnit!" The curse rang out across the meadow, startling the damselfly I was stalking back into flight. I ground my teeth. _Deep breaths, Marco, deep breaths…_oh, who was I kidding?

"Rachel!" I roared in exasperation. "I almost had that one!"

Had there been anyone but us in the forest, they would have been treated to the most unusual sight of four Animorphs and a hawk dashing around the meadow after insects, nets wildly swinging. Almost half an hour ago, Jake had decided to go with Cassie's damselfly morph suggestion. But deciding on the morph is one thing; capturing the critter to acquire it is another.

Rachel, Jake and I had elected to take the small nets and try our luck solo. Cassie and Tobias had formed a team, and were attempting a sort of 'seine net' air fishing. Ax and Eric were supposedly on the lookout…but I suspected that they were spending most of their time silently laughing at our expense.

We had captured plenty of bugs. But the elusive Damselfly continued to evade our nets.

Cassie smiled cheerfully in the growing dusk and pushed her short hair off of her sweaty cheek. "Well, if nothing else this proves my theory. Damselflies have excellent senses."

I groaned and flopped down onto the ground. "Yeah, great. I'll feel real safe in that morph. Oh, wait, no I won't. I don't have the morph yet, do I?"

"Patience is the key, Marco. We'll get one!"

"Yeah, Marco. Don't be such a baby!"

I opened one eye and chucked my net at Rachel. "I would have had one if you had kept quiet. Now it's your turn…" I trailed off in disbelief.

"Marco? Don't. Move." Jake breathed, his eyes riveted to my extended forearm.

Or rather, to the neon blue insect that was hovering so close to my skin that I could feel the delicate breeze of its wings.

Against all hope, I felt a single one of its six claws touch down. I concentrated on the petite insect, immediately sending it into a light acquisition trance. As the gossamer wings slowed to a stop I became aware of Cassie, leaning anxiously over my arm, a jar in her hand.

"Do you have it yet?"

"Almost. Be ready with that jar, I'm not sure how long the trance will last…"

"_Oh!"_

"There it goes!"

"Got it!" Cassie displayed the jar triumphantly and we all peered in, examining the subject of our long search as it zipped around its prison.

Jake smiled down at the jar. "Energetic little things, aren't they?" he said, looking up at Cassie. She nodded, attempting to ease off the lid that she had slapped upon the jar.

"Yeah. They have a crazy metabolic rate, too. Supposedly it takes two hundred mosquitoes to keep these guys functioning for an hour." She gave up on the jar and handed it to Jake, unaware that the rest of us were staring at her. I felt the remnants of my lunch give an unpleasant heave and swallowed hard.

"Um, Cassie, what exactly do you mean by two hundred mosquitoes?"

Jake looked a little white around the mouth as he spoke. "She means that if these little guys don't eat constantly, they croak. Cassie, don't you think we should have known about this earlier?"

Rachel, I believe, put it most eloquently. "Ewww…"

I winced. "You mean, in addition to dodging human hands and predators,_ and_ avoiding being detected by the yeerks, we're going to have chow down on crème de mosquitoes with a side of gnats—or die? Okay, time for a different morph…"

"So speaks the fly who ate diaper gravy for breakfast," Cassie interrupted. "Look, guys, we've been, and eaten, worse. It's only for two hours, and the damselfly instincts should take care of most of it. Just try not to think about it, and we'll be fine. Now," she said with a smile as she took the loosened lid and jar from Jake's limp hands, "who wants to go first?"

Tobias hurriedly winged away, muttering something about finding Ax.

Nobody else met her eyes.

There was a sigh, and Rachel stepped forward unenthusiastically. "Fine. Let's do it."

You know you're in trouble when the kamikaze of your group is hesitant…

* * *

_Errm...yeah. I don't think that's quite as good as I'd hoped it would be, so suggestions, comments, criticisms and questions would be delightful. Also, PLEASE tell me if I stray out of character. The whole point of this story for me was to learn how to write authentic Animorph Canon, so I'm begging you, help keep me on track!_


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1

**Reviewer Responses**—(**LilManiac:** Well, I don't know...but since you asked so nicely...:) Hope you enjoy the chapter!) (**Lilyofthevalley:** Thank you for your stellar review! I'm not sure I deserve the praise, but I will endevour to earn it...)

_This one is a little weird, folks, because it was an attempt to show the more serious side of Marco. Just read the entire thing before you judge it, please. (Begs) A fair amount of angst and maybe a little OOC, but I'd appreciate any advice you have by the end of it..._

* * *

**Chapter 8**

Cassie is insane.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm all for saving the trees and the flowers and the cute fuzzy animals. The wilderness is a great place. I like to think that my ability to survive in the wild has improved in the last couple of years; at least I no longer look around for a place to plug the coffeemaker in.

But come on.

Singing?

Here we were in the middle of nowhere tromping through slime and bugs and poison ivy and whatever else this God-forsaken patch of bracken felt like throwing at us. And she was singing "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" at the top of her lungs.

"IF you go down in the woods today…"

Various groans arose from our little group as she started into her third repetition.

"…you'd BETTER go in DISGUISE…"

Rachel finally couldn't stand it any longer. Pressing her hands to her ears, she yelled, "Cassie, will you please STOP THAT!"

Cassie grinned at Rachel, and opened her mouth. "If YOU go down in the woods today, YOU'RE in for a BIG surprise…"

Jake shook his head. "I never should have taken her to see that movie…"

The light finally dawned. "You don't mean…"

"Yup. Now every time we get close to a Yeerk establishment, she starts belting out the most annoying song she can think of, hoping to see the controller's heads explode." He winced as she hit a particularly high note. "You should have seen her on the bus yesterday."

"For EVERY one that ever there was…"

Laughing, I left Jake and Cassie and drifted towards the back of the group. Cassie's untrained voice followed me.

"…will gather there for certain BECAUSE…"

I reached the woman following us. "Hey, how are you holding up?"

She grimaced. "The climb, I can't complain about, but the ambiance leaves a certain something to be desired. How does she have the breath to sing like that?" I smiled as she went on. "More to the point, how are you doing, sweetheart?"

"…to-DAY'S the DAY…" Cassie's voice, never particularly on key, was now echoing eerily through the still air. Behind us, the bushes rustled.

My smile froze. Time froze.

_This wasn't right_.

"Honey?" My mother asked, concern furrowing her brow. "Marco, are you all right?"

"…to-DAY's the DAY…"

Staring in horror, I backed away from her. Hork-Bajir began emerging from the bushes. "You aren't Mom."

The face of the woman in front of me went blank.

"Why, whatever are you talking about, Marco?" Eva's mouth said. Then a look of annoyance flashed across her face as, like a broken record, Cassie bleated out another verse.

"…the ANIMORPH'S war has END—"

There was a flash of a dracon beam. Someone screamed. I think it was Jake.

The Yeerk nodded Eva's head in appreciation to one of the Hork-Bajir controllers before turning back to where I stood, staring at the spot that Cassie had occupied only moments before. It forced my mother's lips into a smile of malicious amusement as it resumed speaking.

"Whatever are you talking about, Marco dear? Come, give your mother a hug."

It was madness. There was no time to morph. We just ran, tripping, dodging, weaving. I saw Rachel fall in front of me, but there was no time to stop and help her, just run, run, the complete madness of survival. Behind me I heard the anguished shriek of a red-tailed hawk as Tobias spotted Rachel's still form. Heard Ax call _"Tobias, no!" _Heard the sickening sound of a blade hitting flesh, the dying cries of a wild bird.

And just as suddenly, I went down. Through the red haze surrounding my vision, I could see Jake and Ax dashing away wildly through the trees. In moments they were gone. A few Hork-Bajir trailed after them at an impossible speed. The rest drew up around me, their blades held at the ready. Visser One walked forward.

_Brring._

The yeerk that controlled Eva placed a cool hand against my cheek, and murmured, "My poor little boy." I tried to draw away from her but found I couldn't move. Whimpering, I stayed where I was as she placed her dracon beam against my temple.

_Brring._

"Poor, poor little boy. Did you really believe that she cared for you? Loved you?" The cold, mocking eyes stared deeply into my own. "Your 'mother' had been crushed out of existence before you were born, you fool."

_Brring._

My chest was heaving in an effort to breathe between the sobs that racked my body. Her fingers tightened on the trigger as she kneeled down in front of me. I heard the whine of the charging beam…

"Poor little fool…"

The safety clicked off.

"I was the only mother you ever knew!" In the split second before the beam hit, I heard laughter echoing in my ears…

**_Brring_.**

_Brring…_

Gasping, I sat up…and nearly hit my head on the wood above me.

I was home. I was alive. I was…

Curled up under my desk?…what was I doing there?

_Brring_.

And what was that noise?

_Brring_.

Oh, yeah.

_Brring_.

The phone.

_Brring_.

_Brr…_

"Ughh." I grunted into the phone.

"Hey, Marco, it's Jake."

Still caught in the death-throes of the dream, I blinked. "Huh?"

I heard a sigh on the other end of the phone. "Jake, Marco. You know, your best friend?"

"Oh." Groggily I shook my head. "What time is it?"

"Almost twelve. How late were you up last night, anyway?" Without waiting for a reply, he went on. "You know that essay we were working on for Foreman's class? Well, there's been a development. Turns out you were right about the main character."

What main charac…oh. Shit.

"You know, there used to be a time when I was glad my best friend was phoning me." I grumbled.

"Ha, ha. You want to get together today to work on it?"

"I don't know, Jake. You already know how I feel about the 'main character' …why don't you just keep on going the way we planned?"

"Marco. We need to talk about this. Now."

I closed my eyes and groaned. "Give me time for breakfast, at least. Even five minutes?"

"Ten. At the basketball court. And, Marco?"

"Yes, oh enlightened one?"

"This time, _try_ to remember the basketball?" The receiver clicked.

"Funny." I muttered to him over the dead phone line, and began to crawl out from under my desk. Halfway out I paused. My room was absolutely trashed. Had I really done all that in my sleep?

My knee came down on something sharp, and I yelped, pushing myself out from under my desk with my hands. Turning around, I glared at the inanimate object that dared inflict such damage to my person. A picture frame, the glass now broken. I didn't have to look to know whose picture it contained.

* * *

It was actually a good twenty minutes later when I showed up on the court, the basketball tucked under my arm and a massive bandaid around my knee. Jake was already there, looking bored. He gave my knee a look of pure disbelief before greeting me. 

"Marco…?"

I threw the basketball to him with a chest-high pass. It smacked into his hands. "Look, Jake, skip the pleasantries. You and I both know why you wanted to talk to me. So spill."

Jake sighed and nodded.

"Erek has been able to confirm the other Chee suspicions. Visser One is the one the council of Thirteen has sent to oversee whatever this new plan is. She is supposed to arrive for the Sharing meeting any day now. She could even be in orbit now." He slid off the bench and began pacing restlessly, the ball in his hands.

"The yeerks are counting us as more and more of a threat. They are becoming less sloppy and far more deadly each time we engage them. Everyone is going to have to be on the ball for this mission."

I snagged the ball back from him. He looked at me. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, oh lord and master." I began dribbling the ball in a circle.

"Darnit, Marco!" Jake slammed his hand to the wire fence. I looked up sharply and nearly lost control of the ball. "Be serious for once in your life. I need to know if you can handle this. Not if you could handle it or will try to handle it. If you aren't one hundred percent sure that…you know what, won't affect your judgment, you should stay off the mission."

Be serious. Be _serious?_ "Jake, I'm a kid who grew up with the leader of an alien army for a mom. A kid who's best friend can turn into a dog, and a kid who spends most of his time saving the world. My life is insane. If I tried to take it seriously, I'd go insane." The basketball rebounded off of the pavement and slammed into my shredded knee. "Damn."

The laugh I was expecting never came. When Jake next spoke, he was deadly earnest.

"Marco. Why didn't you morph that cut away?"

That made me pause. Why hadn't I?

Because, perhaps, it was a pain that I could control, I could cause, and then just as easily, remove? Unlike a certain other hurt that had recently taken over my life.

"You know, sometimes I hate you," I growled.

Jake smiled crookedly at me. "What are friends for?"

We glared at each other for several minutes. Or rather, I glared at Jake as he looked back at me. Then I laughed.

"You've been taking lessons from Cassie, haven't you?"

"Well," Jake smiled sheepishly, "she did kind of help me…"

"Jake, I can handle it. I promise you. I'll be there for the rest of you." I could do it, I knew. Whatever my personal feelings were, they would to come second to the mission. They had to.

Jake punched my shoulder lightly.

"Mind you, I'll still whine and complain every step of the way."

This time it was Jake that started laughing.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Marco. I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

_Man, did I have fun writing that! Which of course probably means it's not half as good as the rest…(sigh)…oh, well. I know that most people consider dreams a cheap cop-out, but I think they're great for exploring the suppressed, unconscious fears of a character. Sorry about the length. I actually had more written, but I couldn't think of a way to tie it into this chapter. Hopefully I'll get it up soon._

_Anyway, thanks for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it at least half as much as I enjoyed writing it!_


End file.
